Case Study: Computer misuse in the workplace

An organisation’s in house IT Department had been remotely monitoring the employee for some time; to confirm their suspicions and justify disciplinary action, they immediately employed our computer forensic specialist services.

Paradigm advised the IT Department to leave the computer switched on once the employee had left for the day and not tamper with it as this could damage any evidence making it inadmissible in court under ACPO guidelines should legal action be required.

Paradigm investigators visited the company’s offices after hours, imaged the switched on computer and returned to their premises to carry out digital forensic analysis. Imaging the computer in this way caused minimum disruption for the company, did not alert the employee to the investigation, and yet enabled Paradigm analysts to carry out a thorough investigation.

Subsequent analysis revealed that whilst logged on at work, the employee had indeed viewed indecent images of children; further analysis of the internet browser showed he had also visited websites containing indecent images and had downloaded material from them.

This was communicated in the forensic report to the employer, the employee was subsequently dismissed and the police were informed.

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